Dekalb’s Jim Pittman has seen a lot of candles on a lot of cakes in his seven decades on this earth, but the birthday celebration he had on Sunday will certainly be one he will always remember.
The diehard Ole Miss baseball fan turned 70 while watching his Rebels win the 2022 College World Series. Pittman wasn’t in Omaha, Nebraska on Sunday, but he certainly remembers his one and only trip to see the College World Series — it was in 1972 when he was the ace pitcher for the Rebs.
“I won’t go back (to Omaha),” Pittman said last Thursday, two days before the Rebels were set to begin play against the University of Oklahoma in the best-of-three championship series. “It wasn’t a good experience (for me). I went, and when they gave me the ball (in the opening game of the World Series) I expected to win.” While Pittman had a good fastball against the University of Southern California that day, he just couldn’t control his breaking pitch. USC won that game 8-6 and went on to win the 1972 National Championship.
Pittman had every right to think he would be dominant when he took the mound at Rosenblatt Stadium against the Trojans in 1972. The then-sophomore had a 10-1 win/loss record going into the game, had been named All-SEC, and had pitched lights out as Ole Miss had shocked the baseball world by coming out of the loser’s bracket to win the District Tournament held in Gastonia, N.C., beating No. 1-ranked South Alabama in back-to-back games to earn the trip to Omaha.
Pittman, a 6-foot-2 right-hander, pitched a pair of complete games in the District Tournament. The first came in Ole Miss’ 9-3 tournament-opening win over Jacksonville (Fla.) University. He gave up three runs in the first inning, but then shut the Dolphins down the rest of the way.
The Rebels lost to Virginia, the Atlantic Coast Conference champions, in the second game by a score of 9-3, sending Ole Miss to the dreaded losers’ bracket of the six-team tournament. But the Rebs rode strong pitching and the bats of stars like Paul Husband and Steve Dillard to knock off Florida State 8-3 and Virginia 9-0, setting up a showdown with the Jaguars of South Alabama, a team that had swept the Rebels earlier in the season.
Pittman pitched the first game against the Jags, striking out 10 and tossing a five-hit complete game as Ole Miss won 8-4. The Rebs then won the second game 12-1.
While Pittman was disappointed that Ole Miss went two and out in Omaha — they lost to Texas 9-8 in their second game at the CWS despite jumping out to an 8-0 lead — he knew he had two more seasons to try and get back to Omaha and make things right, or so he thought.
Two weeks before the 1973 season was to begin, Pittman had just finished pitching a bullpen session inside the old Tad Smith Coliseum, topping out at 95 miles per hour. “It was the fastest I had ever thrown the ball,” he said. “I was really feeling good.”
The pitchers closed out their practice session by running the steps of the coliseum, battling their way to the top, before turning and running back down. It was one of those trips down that changed everything for Pittman.
“I fell and when I did I put my hands out in front of me and tore up (the middle finger) on my pitching hand,” he said. “The ligament pulled the bone away. My hand swelled up and my season was done.”
The four-year letter winner did manage to pitched a couple games at the end of the season, and some the next year. “I just didn’t have Major League stuff anymore.”
While it may have ended Pittman’s baseball career, it didn’t rob him of his life.
“I could have dwelled on it, but why do that,” he asked? “It just wasn’t supposed to happen. I’ve had a good life and done a lot of interesting things.
“I try to enjoy every day,” Pittman said. But, he will readily admit few have been as enjoyable as last Sunday.
“To be honest it was surreal, almost hard to believe,” he said of watching the Rebels win the National Championship “We have waited for it so long.”
And finally, after 50 years, Omaha has produced a good memory for Pittman and his 1972 Rebel teammates.
Austin Bishop, AKA The Old Sports Dude, has been covering high school, college, amateur, and professional sports since 1975. He is currently pastor of Great Commission Assembly of God in Philadelphia, Miss. He may be contacted by email at starsportsboss@yahoo.com or by phone at 601-938-2471.
